The Cost of Discipleship

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer believed that whatever one said one believed was not as important as living what one believed.

it was the church’s duty to call the state to account for its actions; and in the end, if the state did not do the right thing, it was the duty of the church to oppose the state with action.

“religionless Christianity,” a Christian faith that was more than mere “religion,” that consisted of far more than simply avoiding sins and attending a church service once a week.

they knew that what looks to us like death is in fact a portal to the very antithesis of death.

they show us with their lives that they know something we too can know but may not yet know; and in the act of their dying they show us that there really is nothing to be feared, that we are fools not to know it and to rejoice in it as they have done.

it the duty of the Churches to listen anew to the message of the Bible and to put themselves in the context of the whole Church.

It is the same call of God which also obliges us only to make use of freedom with a deep feeling of responsibility.

A Christian has then no other choice but to act, to suffer and—if it has to be—to die.

When a man really gives up trying to make something out of himself—a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman (a so-called clerical somebody), a righteous or unrighteous man,… when in the fullness of tasks, questions, success or ill-hap, experiences and perplexities, a man throws himself into the arms of God… then he wakes with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith, that is metanoia and it is thus that he becomes a man and Christian.

even in the age of the nation-state there are loyalties which transcend those to state and nation.

even in this age nationalism stands under God and that it is a sin against him and his call for fellowship with other nations if it degenerates into national egotism and greed.

men can lose their country if it is represented by an anti-Christian régime.

it is not only a Christian right but a Christian duty towards God to oppose tyranny, that is, a government which is no longer based on natural law and the law of God.

the spiritual has the primacy over the material.

The future in modern society depends much more on the quiet heroism of the very few who are inspired by God.

“look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

the pure Word of Jesus has been overlaid with so much human ballast—burdensome rules and regulations, false hopes and consolations—that it has become extremely difficult to make a genuine decision for Christ.

Does not our preaching contain too much of our own opinions and convictions, and too little of Jesus Christ?

When the Bible speaks of following Jesus, it is proclaiming a discipleship which will liberate mankind from all man-made dogmas, from every burden and oppression, from every anxiety and torture which afflicts the conscience. If they follow Jesus, men escape from the hard yoke of their own laws, and submit to the kindly yoke of Jesus Christ.

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.

forgiveness

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

the following of Christ is not the achievement or merit of a select few, but the divine command to all Christians without distinction.

The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. Such a man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace, and that the call is inseparable from the grace.

Is there a more diabolical abuse of grace than to sin and rely on the grace which God has given?

costly grace is the only pure grace, which really forgives sins and gives freedom to the sinner.

No other significance is possible, since Jesus is the only significance. Beside Jesus nothing has any significance. He alone matters.

Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.

only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.

For faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.

The first step of obedience makes Peter leave his nets, and later get out of the ship; it calls upon the young man to leave his riches. Only this new existence, created through obedience, can make faith possible.

Christ must first call him, for the step can only be taken at his word. This call is his grace, which calls him out of death into the new life of obedience.

renounce the sin which holds you fast—and then you will recover your faith!

The man who disobeys cannot believe, for only he who obeys can believe.

“First obey, perform the external work, renounce your attachments, give up the obstacles which separate you from the will of God. Do not say you have not got faith. You will not have it so long as you persist in disobedience and refuse to take the first step.

Peter has to get out of the ship before he can believe.

Man must decide for himself what is good by using his conscience and his knowledge of good and evil. The commandment may be variously interpreted, and it is God’s will that it should be interpreted and explained: for God has given man a free will to decide what he will do.

Neighbourliness is not a quality in other people, it is simply their claim on ourselves.

Struggling against the legalism of simple obedience, we end by setting up the most dangerous law of all, the law of the world and the law of grace. In our effort to combat legalism we land ourselves in the worst kind of legalism. The only way of overcoming this legalism is by real obedience to Christ when he calls us to follow him; for in Jesus the law is at once fulfilled and cancelled.

Salvation through following Jesus is not something we men can achieve for ourselves—but with God all things are possible.

Discipleship means adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefore submission to the law of Christ which is the law of the cross.

To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self-denial can say is: “He leads the way, keep close to him.”

The cross is there, right from the beginning, he has only got to pick it up: there is no need for him to go out and look for a cross for himself, no need for him deliberately to run after suffering. Jesus says that every Christian has his own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God.

Each must endure his allotted share of suffering and rejection. But each has a different share: some God deems worthy of the highest form of suffering, and gives them the grace of martyrdom, while others he does not allow to be tempted above that which they are able to bear.

the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise godfearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ.

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ.

The call of Christ, his baptism, sets the Christian in the middle of the daily arena against sin and the devil. Every day he encounters new temptations, and every day he must suffer anew for Jesus Christ’s sake.